


Love Letters, but Not From You

by DrChickenSlinger



Category: Naruto
Genre: GaaLee, LeeGaa, Love Letters, M/M, just lots of sand sibs moments because theyre the best, kankuro has insomnia now too, sand sibs, well meaning friends
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-15
Updated: 2019-03-15
Packaged: 2019-11-18 09:15:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18117815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrChickenSlinger/pseuds/DrChickenSlinger
Summary: Gaara and Lee have well meaning friends and family.  But do love letters written by someone else really count as relationship building?





	Love Letters, but Not From You

“WE SHOULD WRITE A LOVE LETTER!” Temari heard Kankuro yell, barely registering the words in her half asleep state. A few seconds after, her door slammed open, the yellow light filtering in from the hallway. “We should write a love letter!” he repeated, his voice a loud whisper, squeaking as it got higher in his excitement.

“Kankuro, why do you insist on being bat shit crazy at three in the morning when I’m trying to sleep?” Temari grumbled, lazily rolling over as she chucked a pillow in the direction of her loud brother. Lately, it was becoming obvious that Gaara wasn’t the only insomniac in the family. Whenever Kankuro came up with a new insane way to get Gaara and Lee together, he chose to run through the house and tell Temari in the moment rather than waiting when she was awake like any other rational person would.

Kankuro picked up her pillow and jumped onto her bed, narrowly avoiding crushing her in the process. He sat cross legged with the pillow wedged in his arms, his face akin to a kid waking up on his birthday. “Come ON Tem,” he continued to harshly whisper, “don’t you want the squirt to be happy?” 

She sighed and stared at the ceiling. For a brief moment she considered getting her fan and blowing Kankuro out the window and down the street, anywhere far enough away where he wouldn’t be able to bug her so she could get some decent sleep. But that would require getting up out of her bed, and she was so comfortable. She sighed and propped herself up on her elbows, staring Kankuro down.

“How would us writing a letter move this process along any further? Besides, neither of us have a romantic bone in our body.”

“Well, I figure if we write a love letter to Lee- from Gaara- that would get the juices flowing. Greenie would send a romantic declaration of youth and passion back. Do the math, Tem. Gaara might be a bit confused at first, but he would quickly forget about that once he realized how head over leg weights the kid is for him.”

“Kankuro. I know you’ve had a lot of ideas and I think that this one-”

“Is the best one yet?!”

“-is the stupidest one you’ve had,” Temari finished, huffing in her annoyance.

“Aww, c’mon Temari! Since when have you contributed anything helpful?” He whined, flopping over her dramatically.

“I advised Gaara to tell Lee about his feelings. I have hinted to Lee to confess his feelings too. Both of them are too thick skulled sometimes. They don’t realize how gross and sappy they get over each other. Best friends my ass.” Temari kicked Kankuro to the floor, pulling the covers back up to the sound of a thump on the hard ground.

Kankuro groaned and rubbed his head. “They may have thick skulls, but I don’t so watch it, will ya?”

“Goodnight Kankuro,” Temari said, closing her eyes and gesturing her finger at him in a rather rude way. He huffed and moved toward the door. 

“Night, Tem. Love you.”

She sighed, attempting to hide her smile. “Love you too.”

The next morning, she woke up as the sun was rising. She didn’t have to be up this early, but it apparently wasn’t her choice. She seemed to be having an intense case of deja vu as she heard Kankuro pounding up the stairs to her bedroom, once again yelling about a love letter.

She groaned and ripped the blankets off the top of her. She grabbed the closest fan to her and pulled open the door. Before she could launch a wind attack at her noisy younger brother, her face was assaulted with what seemed to be an envelope. But why was it so… heavily scented? Kankuro’s face was slightly manic, eye bags deeply set from lack of sleep. His deep eyes seemed even deeper surrounded by skin lacking his normal face paint. Temari always softened a bit when she saw him without it. It reminded her of when they were younger and when she would often protect him from the bullies on the playground. But now, the only person he needed protection from, was Temari herself.

“Kankuro… do you want to explain why you are slapping me with stationary at 5 in the morning?!” she grumbled, her voice deeper from sleep. She closed her big fan with a snap, but kept her hand on it, silently threatening Kankuro should his antics continue.

“Temari, it looks like we don’t need to send Lee a love letter after all. Look what came in from Konoha this morning!” he said, thrusting the envelope at her. She took it delicately between two fingers, not wanting whatever fragrance it was currently soaking in to get all over her. The envelope was a pale green with turtles dotting the back. The most noticeable thing, however, was the lacey “Gaara” written across the back with a heart drawn carefully at the end.

“You know what this means don’t you?” Kankuro yelled. “It means that Lee-”

Kankuro’s excitement was quickly cut off when a large thread of sand filled his mouth. At the end of the hall, Gaara stood, eyes heavy and hair and clothes rumpled. In his excitement, Kankuro had forgotten all about the Kazekage who normally slept right down the hall from Temari if he wasn’t doing paperwork in his office.

“What in the name of the sand goods could you possibly be yelling about at this time? Have you forgotten how difficult I find it to sleep?” Gaara asked hoarsely. He yawned lightly, breaking his threatening aura. “I almost had a full eight hours of sleep. The last time I was able to accomplish that was eight months ago. And you ruined it. Good work, Kankuro.”

Kankuro stared sheepishly at the ground. He meant no harm in his efforts to get Lee and Gaara together, but sometimes he got too excited. 

“Damn, I’m really sorry, Gaara. I forgot you were right there, I’m so used to you doing paperwork all night. I’ll make it up to you?” Kankuro offered, gesturing his hands to his sides in an effort to ease Gaara’s anger.

“Yes, you will. You can see to both mine and Temari’s morning duties. You will need to be present during the changing of the guards on duty on the borders as well as oversee Temari’s meeting regarding security for the upcoming festival between Konoha and Suna. Luckily for you, it’s nothing too austere. Not that we could trust you with anything like that in the first place,” Gaara said, smirking at him lightly. Although Kankuro was glad Gaara had gotten closer to them, it also meant that he was teased and tormented mercilessly. Sometimes he really hated being the middle child.

Kankuro groaned and swiped at his face. “Fine, fine. Someone’s gotta pick up your slack. I’ll see you later then, enjoy a few more hours of sleep I guess.”

Gaara hummed at his response and both he and Temari turned to step back into their rooms. As Kankuro walked down the stairs, Gaara turned back toward him.

“Were you holding a green envelope?” He asked, one hairless brow quirked.

“Er, nope! Not at all!” He raced down the stairs, stuffing the envelope in his waistband once he was out of Gaara’s sight. Too tired to further investigate, Gaara walked back into his room and slept uninterrupted for an extra hour. Temari was able to squeeze in two extra hours. Both of them woke up in time to attend to their duties, but were pleased at the fact that they had made Kankuro sweat a little in the meantime. 

Later that day, after Temari’s meeting, Kankuro slipped into her office, shutting the door silently behind him. Temari continued her paperwork, focusing on the form beneath her trying to figure out a good number of escorts for the Daimyos for the upcoming festival. Kankuro sat patiently in the chair positioned in front of her desk. She continued to work for a few minutes longer, making notes on another piece of paper. Once satisfied with the conclusion she came to, she marked it onto the mission report form and sealed it to be sent to the Hokage for approval. She would run it by Gaara in person later.

“You now have my attention,” she said, turning to Kankuro and folding her hands with an air of dramatic politeness on her desk. With the same touch of drama and a complete lack of politeness, Kankuro pulled out the green envelope from his waistband and slammed it onto her desk.

“Has that been in your pants all day?” Temari asked, her nose wrinkling in disgust.

“That’s beside point,” Kankuro replied, standing to begin pacing her office. “We need to figure out what to do with this.”

“Shouldn’t we just… give it to Gaara?” 

“And leave his love life in sandy, inexperienced hands?” he all but shouted. “Nuh uh, no way. Here’s my plan. We write bowl cut back. Go with my original plan. Then on the day of the festival, we give Gaara all of the letters that Lee has written him. He doesn’t even have to do any of the hard work. They fall in love. It’s beautiful. They get married, move out of our place, I get Gaara’s big bed and room. Now, wind bag, you tell me where this plan could possibly go wrong?” he concluded, slamming his hands on her desk breathing heavily.

“Hey, Kankuro?” Temari placed her head on her chin and leaned forward.

“Yeah?” he asked, eyes wide in suspense.

“You’re an idiot,” She concluded, smacking him in the head with one of her decorative hand fans located on her desk.

“Aww, Temaaarrriiii!” he whined, slumping back into his chair. “Temari! Temari! Tema! Tem! Mari! Temari! Come ON!”

Temari made a mental note to schedule an appointment for him with the village doctor. He really did act out of his mind when he wasn’t getting enough sleep.

“Dontcha want Gaara to be happy? Dontcha think we could help him with that?” he pleaded, eyes now resembling that of a puppy.

“Yes, Kankuro, I want that as much as you. But I’d rather do it without lying to him or Lee.”

“Well you know… Gaara moving into his own place has benefits for you too,” he crooned, sliding his head suspiciously into his hand.

“Oh, really?” Temari drawled, humoring him. “And what would that be?”

“Well… I was hoping you would come up with one yourself and make things easier on me,” he said, grinning at Temari.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. For how often her little brothers made her do that, she was worried they would get lost in the back of her head someday. 

“You know what, Kankuro? Fine. Fine! Do it. But, I will not get involved. And when Gaara suffocates you with sand for meddling with his love life, just know that I’m not going to help you get it out. Now, leave my office before I hand the festival duties over to you entirely.”

Kankuro leapt out of the chair triumphantly and ran down the hall to his own office. He had a love letter to write.

~~~~~~

“Dearest Gaara, the love of my life. I adore you tremendously and would want nothing more than to be your sweetheart forever.”

“That sounds absolutely terrible, Tenten. I’m not writing that.” Neji scowled, staring down at Lee’s stationary. 

“Ugh, you’re right. I don’t know how to do this. I’ve never felt the need to write a love letter. How do these even work?”

“You think I would have any more experience than you?” Neji scoffed, crossing his arms and staring Tenten down. “Gai-sensei and Lee talk similar enough. How would he describe love?”

“As a… burning youth… golden passion? Something, something… Youth?” Tenten mumbled, trying to remember what Gai always went on about. She almost regretted tuning him out during his speeches. Almost.

“Okay, how about this: 

Dearest Gaara,

The youth of my flaming passion burns deeply for you in my golden days. 

I wish for nothing more than to run my hands through your silky youthful hair and kiss your passionate lips.

Youth and passion forever,

Rock Lee”

“That sounds absolutely terrible. And exactly like Lee. It’s perfect.”

Tenten helped Neji decorate the letter with hearts and drawings of turtles and hourglasses, when Lee walked into the front door of his apartment.

“Neji! Tenten! What are you doing in my apartment? And what are you doing with my stationary? That was a gift from Gai-sensei…” he muttered, scratching his head in confusion.

“Look, Lee, we love you so much. And we know how much you love Gaara. So we’re going to help you. We wrote him a love note, it sounds exactly like you. We’re going to send it right away and there’s nothing you can do to stop us. You would overthink it and never send it. It’s time you and Gaara got together!” Tenten said, her voice getting louder and louder with each word.

“But, Tenten, Gaara and I-”

“No! I don’t want to hear it! Neji and I are sick of your pining and never ending thoughts for the Kazekage! Time to get your butt into gear, Lee!” she said, walking to him and placing a firm hand on his shoulder. He turned to stare at Neji, silently asking for an explanation. He shrugged his shoulders and met his stare with blank eyes.

“It was her idea, not mine,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. 

“Tenten, I really appreciate the sentiment but I am already-” he began, but was quickly interrupted once again.

“Lee, I don’t want to hear another word. Don’t you have a mission to worry about anyway? Here, I packed your bag and will be watering your plants while you are gone. Goodbye, Lee, we will miss you!” she said, shoving Lee out the door before he could try and argue further. A muffled, slightly confused, “thank you” could be heard through the door as Lee raced off to meet his team at the gates. It was a simple escort mission for one of Konoha’s prestigious merchants, but he would be gone for a few weeks. This gave Tenten plenty of time to complete her personal mission of making the Kazekage fall in love with Lee. 

She stomped back to the table with renewed determination. She folded the letter, shoved it into the envelope, and wrote Gaara’s name on the back, adding a little heart as an afterthought. Once she was satisfied that it was sealed, she made her way into Lee’s bathroom and dug out the cologne he rarely used. After spraying a noticeable amount from the bottle, she left to send it. Neji followed after her, nose wrinkled in disgust as the cologne filled his nostrils and became the only thing he could smell for days.

~~~~~~

Kankuro sat at his desk and carefully opened the letter using a kunai. He wanted to make sure to preserve all of the original decorations and drawings as best as he could so that Gaara could see them later. He read the letter quickly, slightly disgusted. 

“This kid sure talks a lot about passion and youth, huh?” he muttered to himself. “I don’t even think Gaara’s hair is silky…”

After reflecting on the texture of his younger brother’s hair for what was longer than a reasonable amount of time, he pulled out a clean sheet of paper which read “From the desk of the Kazekage” at the top. He had been able to swipe a few pages from Gaara’s desk when he had distracted him by talking about the succulents growing in his office. He took out his best pen and began to write.

“Dear Lee,

It pleases me to know that we share the same feelings of…”

What word did Kankuro want to use? He didn’t think Gaara would use the word love right off the bat. But he didn’t want Lee to be confused by the message.

“It pleases me to know that we share the same feelings of desire.”

Satisfied with his excellent Kazekage impression, he continued.

“The bond I share with you grounds me to the earth just as my immense chakra grounds the sand to my hands.

I hope to see you at the festival for our villages in a few weeks. You will soon know what it’s like to kiss a foreign leader.

Yours,

Gaara”

Kankuro finished the letter and sat back admiring his handy work. “Wow,” he sighed. “I’m so good at this.”

He stuffed the letter into an envelope, sweeping a few granules of sand randomly located on his desk in with the paper for good measure. After sealing it up and properly addressing it, he hunted down the nearest assistant to send it off. He then downed two strong cups of coffee and continued on with his work, content in the fact that his plan was unfolding just as he wanted it to.

~~~~~~

“You will soon know what it’s like to kiss a foreign leader. Yours, Gaara,” Tenten read, Neji reading over her shoulder as she recited it out loud. “Wow. I can’t believe our letter actually worked!” she yelled, holding her hand out to high five Neji. He begrudgingly tapped her palm lightly. She scowled at him and held her hand out again. “Neji, we both know that wasn’t a real high five.” He narrowed his eyes at her and smacked her hand again hard, this time using a small amount of gentle fist to make sure it really packed a punch.

“NEJI!” she yelled, shaking her hand out. She launched herself at him, quickly putting him into a headlock.

“Tenten… the letter,” he wheezed, face turning red.

“Oh, right.”

She released Neji and smoothed the paper out onto the kitchen counter. “Well… What do we do now?” She asked.

“Uh, write another letter I guess?” Neji replied, rubbing his sore neck.

“Okay then. Let’s get to work!” she said, pulling another piece of Lee’s stationary out of one of her drawers. She made a mental note to replace it once Gaara and Lee were in love.

Tenten and Neji continued to write letters to “Gaara” and Kankuro continued to write letters to “Lee”. Sappy promises were made, sweet nothings were whispered in ink, and the pet names got more and more dramatic as the weeks went by. Both sides got increasingly proud of themselves for sparking love and for being such excellent romantic instigators.

As the festival neared, Lee returned home safe from his mission. Tenten and Neji had been assigned to assist in escorting the Daimyo to Suna where this year’s festival was being held, but made the promise to meet Lee at the border of the city. After a long and hot journey, they were finally greeted with the sight of their friend bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement. After ensuring the Daimyo was escorted through the gates safely, they reunited with Lee.

“I am looking forward to seeing the Kazekage!” Lee exclaimed. “Have either of you seen him yet?” he asked, looking towards Suna’s center where the Kazekage’s office was located.

“Er, no but we do have something to give you. We have been writing him these past few weeks while you were gone like we said we would,” Tenten admitted, pulling a stack of letters out of her jounin vest. “He really likes you a lot!”

Lee took the letters from her, face growing more confused as he examined them.

“Uh, Tenten, this is not Gaara’s handwriting,” he said, dark eyebrows pulling down as he stared at her.

“No, of course it isn’t,” a voice called from behind them. Lee brightened and whipped his head around. 

“Gaara!” he yelled, running towards him. He picked him up around his middle, burying his face into his vest as his long coat flapped around his feet from the force of Lee’s embrace. Tenten and Neji’s jaws dropped and the sound of choking could be heard directly from behind Gaara.

“Kankuro has been writing letters in my place. I was just informed of this today. I knew immediately that it wasn’t you he was corresponding with,” Gaara said, returning Lee’s embrace.

“But, how did you know?!” Tenten sputtered, disregarding all formalities.

“Lee and I have been communicating through letters for the past eight months ever since his last stay in Suna. That was when we expressed our feelings for each other. But, we don’t use regular post. My messenger bird, Hiroto, delivers letters to the both of us and stays with one until a letter is ready to be sent. It also allows Lee to talk with me when he’s on missions.”

“Wait. You two have been dating for eight months?” Neji asked, hands running tiredly through his hair.

“I did try and tell you when Tenten first offered to write Gaara letters, but she would not let me get the words out!” Lee explained, his arm wrapping around Gaara’s shoulders.

“Wait… eight months… isn’t that around the time you said you last slept through the night?” Kankuro asked, walking up to insert himself more fully into the group,

Gaara huffed. “Yes, Kankuro, I figured you would have gotten the picture sooner. Turns out it’s much easier to sleep when Lee is wrapped around me like a monkey.”

As if to further prove Gaara’s point, Lee wrapped both arms tightly around him placing his forehead on his shoulder, face turning a bright shade of red. 

“Now, if we could please burn those letters all of you wrote. I don’t even want to have the ability to read whatever grotesque imagery they contain. There’s enough cologne on each of them that I’m sure they would have no trouble igniting.”

Gaara ignored all further questioning from the small group, deciding instead to pull Lee’s chin in for a brief kiss. He then grabbed his hand, pulling him further into the village and away from the well meaning, but misdirected shinobi.

“So… Neji. You sure do have a way with words, huh?” Kankuro asked, slowly turning to face him.

“Gross,” Neji huffed, turning to follow Lee and Gaara into the village.

“Hey, wait!” Kankuro called, walking after him. Tenten followed slowly, head shaking in disbelief. 

“How the hell did they manage that for eight months without us figuring it out?” she muttered to herself. She was glad to know that they had finally worked it out after years of attraction, but she wished she had realized sooner. Turns out, Lee didn’t need any help after all. Gaara loved Lee, not some dramatic imitation of him. And that, Tenten concluded, was more romantic than anything she could ever hope to replicate.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you as always for reading! I thought it would be interesting for another sand sib to have insomnia since it's usually genetic. I know for Gaara it was because of Shukaku, but let's roll with it, yeah? S/O to the gaalee biker gang as always for the motivation and general amazingness! Have a lovely day!! <3


End file.
